Cinema, Art Deco, and Greta Garbo as Style Icon in the 1920s

Drawing on a section of her book Designing Women: Art Deco, Cinema and the Female Form (Columbia University Press), Lucy Fischer will discuss the broad role of Art Deco in the cinema of the 1920s (costume design, décor, theater architecture, film poster graphics, studio logos, etc.) while concentrating on the films of a particular star of the decade—Greta Garbo—who, became an Art Deco “icon.” This was due to her sculpted looks, the cutting-edge fashions she wore in her films, the modern sets in which she was placed, her artful publicity photographs, and her roles as an independent New Woman.  For all these reasons, she became an on-screen emblem of the style.

About the Presenter 

Dr. Lucy Fischer is Distinguished Professor Emerita in Film and Media Studies at the University of Pittsburgh.  She is the author or editor of fifteen books among them Designing Women: Art Deco, Cinema and the Female Form; American Cinema of the 1920s: Themes and Variations; Art Direction and Production Design, Cinema by Design; Art Nouveau, Modernism, and Film History; Cinemagritt and  René Magritte Within the Frame of Film History, Theory and Practice. She has served as President of the Society for Cinema and Media Studies.

This program will be recorded. If you are unable to watch live, you can still register and watch the recording at a later day. The recording will be available within one or two days after completion of the program.

Registration is $15 for ADSW and ICADS members; $20 for nonmembers.